(Amelia's POV)

Once David and Sebastien had come back and joined everyone else, they started to talk about everything that had happened to them in the past few weeks.

"Amelia, when did all of this start?" Patrick asked

"It started on New Years Eve when AJ came home late. That was the night I called you, Seb," Amelia replied and Seb nodded.

"Do you remember how it all started?" Bob asked

Amelia nodded. "She came home tipsy on New Years Eve and said she had met a guy. A couple of days later, Charlotte brought her home, barely conscious. She fell asleep on our couch and I noticed her wrist was bandaged. I rewrapped it and saw bite marks. Once I saw that, I knew she was hiding something from me. I went into her room and found William's hat in her closet. After that, I was kidnapped, and then we pretty much know what happened after that," she recounted.

"What would make someone want to go after a Dandie in the first place? They'd have to be insane to actually go and do that!" David piped up and everyone nodded in agreement.

"Maybe she actually is," Seb suggested. Amelia turned to look at him. As she opened her mouth to say something, he held his hand up.

"Hear me out, Mimi. There is no way that anyone in their right state of mind would try and go after a Dandie. What if AJ isn't in her right mind? What if she's slowly unravelling, right before our eyes?"

"I won't believe you until we have some proof," Amelia declared, not wanting to give up on her friend that easily.

"Well then, let's get some. Tomorrow night, we'll go looking for AJ and see what we can find," Bob decided and everyone agreed.

(AJ's POV)

No. I'm not going with you. You're dead, I killed you. I didn't me to, but I still did, alright, I know that! Just leave me alone! I know Charlotte's rallying all of you, but it'll make no difference, I've made my choice. I won't go. You can visit me all you want, but I won't change to become something I'm not. I'm never going back that way again, you all know how hard those early days were for me!

She wasn't on the verge of yelling, but it felt like her head was going to explode if she argued anymore with the latest ghosts. Since Charlotte had come, others had followed. It was about a week after the group managed to get Michael's memory back to normal, and in that week, AJ had gone from midday catnaps with William to not sleeping at all no matter how bad she needed it.

Everyone had picked up on it, of course, which only made it worse.

"You really should get some sleep, Adeline. You look like you're dying." Mike pointed out as she slumped down against the wall at the foot of the stairs, too tired to climb back up to bed.

"I feel like I'm dying. These nightmares? I'm refusing to sleep because I don't want them to come back..."

"And you accuse us of being the childish ones around here. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Butcher added, Sisky following in behind him.

"Why don't you just ask William to fix it for you? He can wipe the memories of the nightmares and replace them with-"

"I'm not doing that. No way. He doesn't need to know I'm suffering like this, let alone the nature of it. I'd much rather lie and cover it up than admit I've got a problem."

"And this is why most mortals today make much better snack than vampires, you're all too stupid to realize what you're getting yourselves into in the first place." Mike reasoned, smiling as AJ smacked his shoulder, "HEY! I'm not mortal anymore, take that back!"

"Take what back?" William asked, stopping mid-descent of the stairs, bending to inspect Adeline.

"That he tried to put the idea the seep is your friend into your head?" he tried, earning a smile although it faltered after only a second.

"Don't make me hurt you." She growled as he ruffled her hair, it hadn't been serious, everyone could tell she'd meant that playfully.

"Come on, Adeline, you know I'm right. You're a firecracker waiting to explode with the energy you're running on." Mike added.

"I'm not running on energy. Not the good kind, anyways. I drank down three AB negatives with a red bull, and I'm still watching things move that are standing still. I'm gonna crash soon, I can tell."

"Good. Good thing we didn't slip her that valium like Chislett suggested," Brendon laughed.

"He WHAT?"

"Thought it'd do you some good. To make you sleep for once."

"Right…" she nodded, before she looked up at William, "Uh, baby, I…I need to talk to you about something…"

"About why you've not been sleeping lately, I suppose?"

She blinked, reaching out a hand so he could pull her onto her feet, picking her up after.

"You really can stop doing that…I can walk, you know."

He smiled, "If you drank that red bull and the blood, I'm not chancing anything. You take the stairs, it's guaranteeing you'd hurt yourself, dear."

"Is not!" she protested, "Why does everyone insist on arguing with me?!"

"Because," he started, kicking the bedroom door open with his foot, "You don't know better than to leave the conversation be."

"I've just been having really bad nightmares lately, like waking up crying ones, and I haven't wanted to wake you, so I normally just stay awake. I just don't want to sleep so they don't come back." She admitted sheepishly, sitting on the edge of the bed, grabbing a pillow and curling up with it, biting one corner.

William smiled gently as he set a hand on her shoulder, "And what are they of, dear? If you talk about them, there's anyways the chance they'll go away."

She froze. What to say? Should she even mention the ghosts? No, it was too early, there had to be another way around it. Thinking as hard as she could about the one night in 1923, she closed her eyes and sighed.

"My..the night I..when I g-got-" she faltered, already feeling the tears at the corner of her eyes, shuddering at the thought of whoever it had been, close enough to change her life forever that night.

He nodded in understanding, leaning in to kiss her cheek before standing and turning to walk out the door, calling an 'I'll be right back'' over his shoulder.

He came back about ten minutes later, with a steaming cup of something that definitely wasn't blood. Looked like tea, smelled like it too.

"Drink. Careful, it's warm." he warned, and for a moment she'd wanted to add 'yeah, and that's not the only thing that is when you're this concerned about me...' but she didn't, instead taking the small cup and gingerly lifting it to her lips. As soon as she took a sip however, she immediately coughed at the odd taste.

"Easy. I know it's not what you're used to, but I want you to drink all of this."

She sputtered, biting the pillow again in an effort to get the weird taste out of her mouth.

"But what is it?"

He smiled at the curiosity in her voice, "Chamomile and lavender tea, with a little bit of honey and valerian. Figured it's a bit safer than slipping you the drugs the others were talking about."

"They're all herbal methods of relieving insomnia..." she trailed of, drinking from the cup again, having remembered all the times Remus had made chamomile tea for her when she couldn't sleep.

And then, something hit her, something she'd probably wouldn't had cared much about if she hadn't done what she'd done to Charlotte.

Charlotte had been right, everyone she'd loved had left her somehow, whether they were killed or just walked out on her.

And before she knew what was happening to her, she was crying, the tears not because she was remembering the next she was turned, rather she was actually missing the people she'd lost.

Noticing her changing mood, William gently grabbed the glass away from her before she dropped it, and set it on the dresser.

"Or maybe you just need to relieve stress that way. Ssshhhh...darling it's okay." he soothed, picking her up and setting her on his lap, rocking her.

She sniffed, resting her head against his shoulder.

"Baby?"

"What is it, Adeline?"

"I...I think I want to go out tomorrow. Just by myself, prowl the old hunting grounds, maybe if I see the places I'll relax some and that'll help some of the nightmares go away." she suggested, turning in his arms so she straddled him.

He rolled his eyes, "I'd allow you if I wasn't convinced you'd go off and get yourself into some sort of trouble."

She giggled, hand reaching to tug at the tie he had on, lips at his jaw line, "And you think you not allowing me to go is going to stop me?" she whispered softly, all trace of her earlier emotion barrier crumbling before her control gone.

He snorted in slight disbelief; she certainly was getting braver in terms of challenging his word.

Remembering what she'd said on the staircase, he smiled as he turned the line against her.

"Don't make me hurt you, love."

Her eyes widened, but then she paused, tilting her head.

"Est-ce une menace ou à la promesse?"